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Samsung’s Big Move Into Ebooks

Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble and all the others have a new competitor to worry about: Samsung.

The company is set to make a strong push into the ebook retail market through its popular line of smartphones, tablets and “phablets,” a new device category between phone and tablet.

The company had a big presence in the digital zone at Book Expo America.

“We’re at BEA because we’re talking to publishers,” said Kathrina Manalac, a Samsung user acquisition and engagement professional at BEA. She is focused on helping the company attract new readers.

The company has quietly launched and updated Samsung Hub, a content store like Google Play that will eventually come preloaded on all Samsung devices, including phones, tablets, televisions, laptops and more. Included in the Samsung Hub is Samsung Readers Hub, the company’s ebook portal.

For now, the Hub is only preloaded on the new Samsung Galaxy S4 phone, widely considered the strongest competitor to the iPhone. By the end of the summer, Samsung Hub will come on the Galaxy S3 phone as well as the Note 2 phablet, according to Samsung employees at the company’s BEA booth.

4 thoughts on “Samsung’s Big Move Into Ebooks”

Just for the record, the Samsung Hub is not pre-loaded on every Galaxy S-4 at the moment. I have one, about 10 days old. No Samsung Hub. So I think that Amazon, Apple, and B&N don’t yet have to worry too much about that \big move into ebooks.\